Absentee deadline extended for voters in 31 PA counties including Northampton, but not Lehigh

Deadline for Lehigh County voters is today

November 02, 2012|By Scott Kraus, Of The Morning Call

Gov. Tom Corbett has given voters in 31 counties whose election offices were closed at any time this week because of hurricane Sandy, one extra day to turn in their absentee ballots.

The list includes Northampton, Bucks, Carbon, Schuylkill, Berks, Monroe and Montgomery counties, but not Lehigh.

The standard deadline to vote by absentee ballot is 5 p.m. todaybut voters in the counties that closed their offices at some point this week will have until 5 p.m. Monday to return their ballots.

Despite lacking power, Lehigh County election director Tim Benyo and county officials opted kept the voter registration office open throughout the week, hoping to preserve voters' ability to request and return absentee ballots.

But the result was the county missed out on two extensions, one that extended the deadline to request absentee ballots by up two days, and a second extending the date to vote them to Monday. Both were reserved for counties that closed their doors.

Lehigh County voters hoping to vote by absentee ballot will have to return their ballots to the office by the close of business today.

"It's a shame that the Governor didn't include voters who could not make it to the office because of the storm in his executive order," Benyo said. "The focus was primarily on the operational side of conducting an election. Unfortunately, because of Sandy and not being addressed in the order, some Lehigh County Voters will have missed their opportunity to cast a ballot."

Pennsylvania Department of State spokesman Ron Ruman said Corbett made the decision based on the availability of county election offices to voters.

"The governor made the best decision he could to be fair to all Pennsylvania voters," Ruman said.

Tens of thousands of Lehigh Valley residents remain without power Friday.

Northampton County's election office has been closed for most of the week because of power problems.

According to the executive order, signed by Corbett on Oct. 31, counties that receive the extra day will be required to set aside any ballots received after the standard 5 p.m. Friday deadline, to be counted after Election Day, the way military and overseas absentee ballots are handled.

The ruling does not affect Allegheny County, which won a court ruling extending the deadline for voters to submit absentee ballots through Election Day.